Carlsberg has unveiled on Friday two no prototypes of a cardboard bottle which could replace one-way bottles made from PET or glass in the future. The Green Fiber Bottle which was announced at Carlsberg’s Sustainable Brands 2016 conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, and at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, is made from sustainably sourced wood fibres and has an “inner barrier” allowing the bottle to hold beer. Last year the final product was presented to the public and the Danish brewer said the bottle would be tested in 2019 in selected pilot markets with between 10,000 and 20,000 bottles (inside.beer, 7.9.2018).
The new announcement and the presentation of two more prototypes seem to indicate that the company encountered more problems than anticipated. One of the new prototypes uses a thin recycled PET polymer film barrier, while the other has a bio-based PEF polymer film barrier.
Myriam Shingleton, Vice President Product Development at Carlsberg Group, said: “We continue to innovate across all our packaging formats, and we are pleased with the progress we’ve made on the Green Fibre Bottle so far. While we are not completely there yet, the two prototypes are an important step towards realising our ultimate ambition of bringing this breakthrough to market. Innovation takes time and we will continue to collaborate with leading experts in order to overcome remaining technical challenges, just as we did with our plastic-reducing Snap Pack.”
Motor of the development is a company called Paboco (“Paper Bottle Company”), a joint venture between Swedish pulp and paper manufacturer BillerudKorsnäs and ALPLA-Werke Alwin Lehner, an Austrian plastics manufacturer and bottle manufacturing specialist. Next to Carlsberg, also Coca-Cola, Swedish vodka maker Absolut and cosmetics giant L’Oréal are partner in the new project.
